HC Deb 20 November 1967 vol 754 c911
15. Mr. Judd

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will make a statement on the current position in the Middle East, with particular reference to refugees.

Mr. George Brown

The refugee situation has not altered fundamentally since the reports of the Commissioner General for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the Secretary General's special representative, Mr. Gussing. These reports are in the Library of the House.

Mr. Judd

Would my right hon. Friend not agree that the predicament of Jordan, minus the prosperous west bank. trying to cope with 220,000 new refugees, 150,000 in overcrowded cities and 70,000 in camps able to look less than four miles across the Jordan to their old encampments will create tension there?

Mr. Brown

I sympathise with what the hon. Gentleman has to say, but in view of the position which the discussions have now reached in New York, I think probably the less I say about it in public the better.